DON'T TAP THE GLASS Album Review: Tyler, The Creator's Carefree Endeavor

DON'T TAP THE GLASS Album Review: Tyler, The Creator's Carefree Endeavor

By Dylan Barbee

Courtesy of Apple Music 

Release Date: 7/21/2025

A new Tyler, The Creator album releasing on such short notice was the last thing I expected this summer. His rollouts are usually grand, building anticipation amongst music listeners and building up new characters that align with different layers of his personality. However, just nine months after dropping CHROMAKOPIA, the artist displays a new look with red leather pants, a red hat and a giant gold chain along with a mustache to embody this new persona that refuses to stop dancing or reveal anything deep about himself.

DON’T TAP THE GLASS is a hypnotic dance-infused G-funk hip-hop album with 10 songs that last just 29 minutes. On his latest release, Tyler, The Creator delivers impeccable flows and melodies on top of a rough Cherry Bomb inspired sound mixed with a shimmering light-hearted production style that encourages listeners to just keep dancing. 

The opening track “Big Poe,” featuring Pharrell Williams opens up with three rules: body movement, only speak in glory (“leave your baggage at home”) and “don’t tap the glass,” immediately letting listeners know that this is album not worth overthinking as its concise tracklist is meant to just dance along to. The intro is energetic, and Tyler’s familiar braggadocious lyricism on Call Me If You Get Lost spills into this newest addition of the artist’s well-decorated discography.

However, there are a lot of over-the-top songs like Mommanem and Stop Playing With Me where he resorts to the West Coast sound that he has grown pretty comfortable with in the past year on songs like “Rah Tah Tah” and his “THAT GUY” song on YouTube that remixes a Kendrick Lamar beat. Personally, I do not like this style as it boxes Tyler in, naturally forcing him to have surface-level lyrics, which at times are displayed on DON’T TAP THE GLASS. “Rah-tah-tah-tah-tah-tah-tah (Rah-tah-tah-tah-tah-tah-tah) Tell them boys hop off my d*ck,” Tyler childishly says on “Stop Playing With Me.”

On the other hand, “Sugar on My Tongue” is a catchy and fun listen with glittery synth use and a funk-inspired bassline that carries throughout the song. The impressive jeopardy-like game show theme production scheme on the song hits its peak at the very end as Tyler sings the bridge and outro while the beat feels like a blast to the past, where its 1970s disco-esque sound invited me to break out into a dance. On the next song, “Sucka Free,” Tyler experiments with even more styles and sounds while he claims to be an artist who minds his own business, stays in his own lane and chases the money. The production style feels very Pharrell, in my opinion, taking inspiration from the Neptunes, N.E.R.D and other 2000s sounds. “I’m that guy, tryna get my paper, baby I’m that guy for real," Tyler sings on the catchy chorus of “Sucka Free.”

The best song on DON’T TAP THE GLASS is “Ring Ring Ring,” as the funk hip-hop fusion style feels like a song Michael Jackson would’ve created during his Off The Wall era. The piano melody in the background mixed with an addictive synth and clever adlibs from Tyler just brought a smile to my face, making it one of my most revisited songs on the album so far, due to Tyler’s lyrics and natural flow. “I had to protect my heart, And build the wall so tall, I couldn’t look over, I need to touch you (one more time) Girl I need to see you (one more time).”

The backend of the album takes on a whole new tone stylistically, with more lush and dreamy beat sequences taking the listener on a musical odyssey. Features DAISY WORLD on “Don’t Worry Baby” and Yebba on "I'll Take Care of You” are fantastic on these last few songs vocally, while Tyler excels on the production and songwriting aspects of the second half of the album. This was my favorite stretch of the album as it felt reminiscent of most of Tyler’s past work sonically, with Cherry Bomb drums reemerging on “I’ll Take Care of You”. 

I understand the concept of wanting to make an album that people can groove to with their friends or in mosh pits at upcoming shows, but refusing to have an overarching narrative to the album feels a little odd for such a great storyteller like Tyler, The Creator. The closest we come to “tapping the glass” or getting too deep is on the final song, “Tell Me What It Is,” where he repeatedly questions why he can't find love. Another interpretation I have of the album title is Tyler telling listeners to stay off their phones and stop tapping the glass to press skip, take photos or scroll on social media while listening to the album. However, DON’T TAP THE GLASS is less of a cinematic adventure than Tyler, The Creator’s previous endeavors. The title of the album itself feels like a copout for the artist to avoid talking about anything personal.

Overall, DON’T TAP THE GLASS is Tyler, The Creator’s quirky experimentation with an era of hip-hop designed to prioritize danceability. As short as the album is, it is still a cohesive body of work where the production outshines everything else. It lacks any subject matter or storytelling lyrically as dense as past albums, IGOR or CHROMAKOPIA. And, maybe this is what Tyler needed after such dense subject matter on his last album CHROMAKOPIA, where he talks about pregnancy scares, the fear of being a parent and peels back the layers of who he is at his core. DON’T TAP THE GLASS does not closely compare to my favorites in his discography, but I respect Tyler’s vision in making an album that even I can’t help but dance to. 

Rating: 7.5/10